JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 36 1 



ARGIOPE DECOT.LATA AT SCILLY. 



By J. T. MARSHALL. 



(Read before the Conchological Society, Sept. 5th 1888, and approved by the Referees) 



The finding of this species at Scilly by my fi-iend Mr. 

 Clifford Burkill amounts practically to a re-discovery. The 

 late Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys dredged two or three dead specimens off 

 Guernsey nearly 30 years ago, but though the same ground has 

 been since dredged over and over again for the same species by 

 the late Dr. Lukis, myself, and others, no further traces of it have 

 appeared. Moreover, there was a possible likelihood of those 

 specimens being sub-fossil, as I believe several other species oc- 

 curred to Dr. Jeffreys in the same cruise which were certainly so. 



Argiope decollata is pretty widely distributed in Europe, 

 and is not uncommon in the Mediterranean. Its distribution 

 embraces the south-west of France, the Atlantic coasts of Spain, 

 the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and yf^gean, also Madeira and the 

 Canary Isles, at depths ranging from 18 to 130 fathoms. The 

 Scilly Isles is therefore the furthest point north for this species, 

 and I have no doubt it will again be found in some parts of the 

 Channel Islands. Nor has the species deteriorated in its north- ward 

 march, the Scillonian specimens being as large as any from the 

 Mediterranean. 



Unfortunately no living specimens were found, but three or 

 four perfect examples and a couple of dozen valves — ample to 

 identify it as an established denizen of the Scillonian seas. 

 Some were dredged in 35-40 fathoms outside Menavawr Rock 

 (about one-and-a-half miles N.E.) and a few valves in 35 fathoms 

 in St. Mary's Sound, about two miles south of St. Mary's. Both 

 localities have been dredged by the Rev. W. J. Smart, and the 

 results appeared in the Journal of Conchology for January, 1885. 

 In fact, it was through Mr. Smart's kindness in lending his charts 

 and giving information that Mr. Burkill was induced to dredge 



